the praises of this dead man, and who daily extol the virtues of this
instructed mummy, who is living eternally like a god, ruling in Amentît,
ye also who shall live in the memory of posterity, all ye who shall
come and read these hymns inscribed, according to the rites, within
the tombs, repeat: 'The greatness of the under-world, what is it? The
annihilation of the tomb, why is it?' It is to conform to the image
of the land of Eternity, the true country where there is no strife and
where violence is held in abhorrence, where none attacks his neighbour,
and where none among our generations who rest within it is rebellious,
from the time when your race first existed, to the moment when it shall
become a multitude of multitudes, all going the same way; for instead
of remaining in this land of Egypt, there is not one but shall leave it,
and there is said to all who are here below, from the moment of their
waking to life: 'Go, prosper safe and sound, to reach the tomb at
length, a chief among the blessed, and ever mindful in thy heart of the
day when thou must lie down on the funeral bed!'" The ancient song
of Antûf, modified in the course of centuries, was still that which
expressed most forcibly the melancholy thought paramount in the minds of
the friends assembled to perform the last rites. "The impassibility of
the chief* is, in truth, the best of fates!"

* Osiris is here designated by the word "chief," as I have
already pointed out.

[Illustration: 029.jpg ONE OF THE HARPERS OF THE TOMB OF RAMSES III.]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken Byjnsinger in
1881.

"Since the times of the god bodies are created merely to pass away, and